Barber SuperBike Race 1 Results 2013

Byron's sure to be hunched over a laptop after the checkers are flown, caught in his own little version of heaven. Whether on dirt, street or a combination of both, MotoUSA's newest addition knows the only thing better than actually riding is telling the story of how things went down.

Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes made it three race wins in a row, taking the checkers a slim 0.245 seconds ahead of National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden in National Guard SuperBike Race 1 at Barber. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Martin Cardenas rounded out the podium, coming across the finish line over 13 seconds adrift of the leader.

A number of riders were penalized with a jump start, including Hayes and Hayden, leaving them at a five-second disadvantage once the race was underway. Neither rider lost much ground due the penalty though, quickly making up the time and then some as the contest progressed.

Hayden took the early lead, followed by Cardenas and Hayes’ teammate, Josh Herrin, in third. Hayes settled into fourth-place, but the lead pack was tight through the opening laps and riders swapped position numerous times throughout the contest. With 18 laps remaining Hayes had passed his way up to second, only to fall back again soon after. Cardenas took a turn in the lead position next, holding there for a handful of laps until Hayes found a line around the Colombian rider.

With 10 laps remaining Hayes settled into the lead while Hayden tousled with Cardenas for the runner-up spot. The Jordan Suzuki rider pushed ahead of Cardenas in the latter portion of the contest, challenging Hayes hard to the end. Hayden stayed right on Hayes’ rear tire as the two riders put a gap on the field and with two laps remaining had left Cardenas over eight seconds behind. Hayden ended the race with the fastest lap time but couldn’t trump the defending SuperBike champion before the finish.

“Oh man — that was a really fast race,” said Hayes afterward. “Like my season, I kind of made it a challenge for myself from the beginning. The light was held for a long time and I saw Rog creeping and I ended up creeping too. Once I got into the lead, I was kind of waiting to see how it would turn out. I figured something was coming — I didn’t know what. When I saw the ‘+5′ on the board, I knew what was going on immediately. I said, ‘okay, let’s see what we can do,’ and just tried to put together every lap as good as I could.”

Herrin held steady in fourth-place while KTM/HMC Racing’s Chris Fillmore took fifth, marking his best finishing position so far this year. Pegram Racing’s Larry Pegram finished in sixth-place followed by Team Hero’s Geoff May in seventh and Hayden’s teammate, Danny Eslick, in eighth.

Cardenas holds the points advantage with half the race weekend complete, sitting 16 points ahead of Herrin in second. Hayes moved past Pegram into third overall and now sits 23 points short of the leader.